Tag: truly victorian

This petticoat pattern it quite every easy. I’m using TV (Truly Victorian) Pattern TV 170. This pattern has four variations you can use depending on the year.

First cut out all your pattern pieces depending on which year you decided to use. I then serge each piece to make sure that the material won’t fray.

I then sewn the darts in the front and sewn each of the front pieces together

For the back you take each piece and sew up to the marking and stop. On each side of the pack you will then fold in the seam on each side down

On the back florence you sew tucks. I actually did to many and later had to take some out. Best to do small ones and not to many you can always put more in if you need to.

Now baste the top of the florence. Next sew it to the bottom of the back .

Attach the fluorescence to the back of the two sewn half together. Now you should have an almost completed petticoat.

The the fun part each piece of the ruffle you need to sew together to make this one very long piece. When you have that finished. Start basting and pull to make gathers to fit on the bottom of your petticoat.

Sew the ruffle onto the bottom of the petticoat.

Now to add the waistband to the top of the skirt. Make sure you fold it first then fold again to the back inner side. This will hide the inner edge.

Waistband is now finished. Take some string and lace it through the waist band.

Make sure if you are working with a 100% Cotton you wash and dry it before you cut it.

This way it won’t shrink at all on you. By doing this first you can have a perfect fit. As always cut out your pattern pieces and serge or use a different stitch to hold the edging from unraveling. This will give your garment a more cleaner look to itself when finished.

BEFORE I CUT THIS I DID A MARKUP ONE TO ADJUST THE SIZING FOR ME

(use cheap muslin to do the markup it will save you time and your good fabric)

First you will be cutting all layers. You will have at least two layers. One the fashion fabric and the other lining. For me I decided to have a 3rd. I felt the cotton muslin was way too limp. So I decided to use an iron on interfacing.

One Fashion Fabric

Two lining

Three Interfacing

(This will give my material more substance to it.)

Iron on all the interfacing to the inside of the white lining. By doing this you would not see the interfacing at all.

This piece is called the side. I laid out all the pieces and started with the side piece to sew to the Front. Make sure to iron the inner seam on both side to set the seam. Remember to set the seam.

After doing this I will sew the side back to the side piece.

Here I sew all three side pieces together and opened and ironed all seams inside and out. To get an accurate size, I used all 1/2″ seams throughout my whole project. I want to make sure I will get the fit I measured fo

Now sew the side back piece to the back and sew the two back pieces together right up through the middle.

After you sew the backs together it’s time to sew the top of each shoulder fronts to the shoulders backs.

You will see it gets harder and harder to open the seams and to iron them. The are curved and to set in the seams you need a very helpful tool. Its called a ham, one side is made of cotton and the other side is flannel. You can put a cured edge and iron the seam with no problems now.

Now to sew the Front to the vest part on each side.

With right sides together, sew Collar lining to collar along the top. Baste the bottom edge of the collar to hold the lining down. After sewing make sure to cut a couple of small notches in the curved areas

Iron seam open and turn it over to iron the other side.

Take the long piece of the Collar and find the center by folding it in half. This will give you the center easily. Pin it to rights sides together, having the collar on the outside.

This is how it looks so far. Use the Ham again to open up the inner seam.

To make things easy for you Iron down about an 1/4″ seam down. When you fold this over you can now pen in place and sew it to the inside collar.

Before I go any further I will try this on to see how accurate it really is to my figure. But I really do need to do it to have all my piece on first… my chemise, corset, bustle, four gore skirt and august overskirt on. I need to then see how much of a dark in the front that I will need to add to get a more accurate fit.

Before I get started my material is pretty wrinkled and I want to have a crisp look. I spray it with light mist of water then iron over it. Here you can see the difference one side is iron without water the other is.

Cut out pieces and sew apron front to sides fronts.

Iron hem then pin before you sew it can give you a cleaner line.

Fold pleats in front apron, bringing bottom of pleat mark to meet top of pleat mark. Baste pleats in place. Pleats should fold upward on correct side of fabric. Sorry didn’t have a picture with this skirt.

Now to create a placket

Fold back placket in half lengthwise, right sides together.

Fold placket piece open and press in place

On the left hand side of skirt, matching raw edges at top and side. I didn’t really like their instructions so I did mine a little different.

After sewing each side of the placket I then sew the side seam up to the top of the placket about an inch past the edge to make it stay in place. You can see here one of the upper pleats in the apron. From making pervious.

Here you can see the top and bottom of the skirt doesn’t match. This is because the back is a lot longer due to later I will be making poufs. I did follow the seam down and folded in to finish the side seam.

Now to move on to making the pleats in the back of the skirt.

To get everything just right I measure how long it is. Depending on how big I want to make my pleats I make sure to find the middle first.

For the center pleat I make it each side half of the original size lets say an inch. so each side is half-inch which is brought in from under side. By doing this you give a center point and each side of pleats have a right direction and a left direction. Make sure to pin it a couple of places.

Showing you half pleat how it’s tucked under itself.

Now for each pleat I measure it to be the same size for. I’m working on the right direction. Pin and Iron it helps so much. It hard to get a nice line but due to these strips it help me a lot to get a nice line to follow.

Finish with the right side you can see all the pleats are going the right direction.

Now I’m taking my pleat to gather from the left side to tuck under. You should follow the same direction and measuring each one.

Finally finished Look how you can see the middle pleat that sits on the top and the others right and left follow that direction of the pleat.

Now its time to baste them in place. You want to go slow. The can move and come untucked so slow and moved pins out one at a time.

Now they are basted I sprayed some water on them and iron the heck out of them so the pleats will set in good. Once I’m happy with the way the look I will sew them for good.

Once both sides are sewn and back is all pleated you can sew on the waist band.

Make sure to leave about 1/2″ on each side over the edge of skirt for later closing.

Make sure if you are working with a 100% Cotton you wash and dry it before you cut it. This way it won’t shrink at all and you can make it fit you perfectly. As always cut out your pattern pieces and serge or use a different stitch to hold the edging from unraveling.

For the front piece make to darts and iron to the inside.

Depending on which style you like to do for this skirt it can be with a bustle or not. You have an Optional Bouffant if you like. I will show you how to do this but I’m not going to make mine this way. Just showing you if you like to.

First sew darts into front and sides on the panels of the skirt shown here. Pinning them in place make sure it hang correctly. Make sure the darts face toward the back.

Sew back to sides and remember to iron your seams open

On the left side, end seam 8 to 9″ from waist and back-stitch. to form a packet by turning open edge under 1/2″ and top stitch down.

Now you need to either gather back with a baste stitch or make pleats in the back. (I will show you later)

You will sewn waistband on skirt and leave a 1″ on both sides at the placket flat.

After doing this you will cut 3 tapes approx. 20″ long. hand stitch tapes to waistband, one at the center back and one at waist side, half way between center back side seam.

You will pin back to the tapes were indicated on pattern, so that each mark is lifted 6″ up the tape. Adjust pouf to personal preference. Hand stitch in desired location. This step is easiest to do while skirt is hanging or on a dress form. I changed mine to what ever way to make it look more natural. Use safety pins when doing this so it will stay on the tape better.

Ok now moving on to the way I decided to make my skirt. It says to pleat the back panel. (I will show you how to in the overskirt directions.

This is the under side of the pleats.

To make sure my pleats will stay uniform and after washing I sewn about two inches on each placket down on the opening side.

After this its time to put the waistband on the skirt leaving an inch on each side. Moving on to the hem the skirt.

Finish the hem by folding the bottom edge under 1/2″ and again 1″. Now stitch in place. When I do this I always iron it first to give it a more crisp line.

For me I wanted to make small pleats for the bottom ruffle. This is very time-consuming but I really like how it looks and its historical correct for this time period.

Sew all the pieces of ruffles sides together to form a one long piece.

Hem the bottom edge by turning under 1/2″ and again 1/2″ and sew down. For the top turn it down 1/2″ down and iron it in place.

Now for the fun stuff.

This is called a perfect pleater. Depending on what with you would like for your pleats it baste on how man tuck per line. I decided to do ever two.. It give is a bigger pleat. It takes a little practice but once you figure it out it really easy to do. To keep your pleats in you can use water and a small amount of vinegar. It really keep the pleats in. Before you remove them to sew. I used some masking tape to hold them in place.

It’s very tricky to baste them in place as they want to move on you, so hold down your tape and watch the underside to keep the folds uniform.

wow finally done it took me two hours but I really like how they will look on the skirt.

Today I worked on my Petticoat with Wire Bustle 1870’s and 1880’s which will support those styles of bustle dresses. This pattern is by Truly Victorian. TV-101

I’m really excited to work on this pattern as its based on an actual garment as seen in Harper’s Bazaar magazine. This pattern that I’m sewing will be easy for storage because it folds down flat.

These directions were quite easy to follow. I bought theses from Truly Victorian. The have a nice collection to choose from.

First I serge all my edges on all of my pattern pieces before i started sewing my seams.

With each seam I made sure I ironed each and everyone. I thought I would post a picture of one that wasn’t ironed her below so you can see the difference.

What a big difference when you don’t set the seam.

On the bustle part I pinned bias tape to the upper bustle part. Trying very hard to give them a straight line as possible.

One completed channel sewn

I have two lines done

Now finished sewing all three channels that go across the bustle.

For this channel it’s sewn at a diagonally part way. You only sew up and back and leave the top open.

At the top of channel one I sewn another open channel over the first channel. Be very careful not to sew closed the bottom channel.

Here is the boning I cut to the correct length from the pattern instructions. Don’t put these in just yet. I will be making the

Now moving on to the florence. This you will need to sew each of the pieces together.

Remember to iron the seams down. I bought this little iron and I just love it. It’s just made for ironing down seams. Nice not to have to brag out the big iron all the time.

Now I need to baste the top of the florence to fit it to the front and back bustle. Due to all the material and its weight. I decided to double pin both directions to keep the gathers in the right about all the way around.

Little by little I would sew slowly and take pins out when you come to them. This really helped me keep my gathers more even all the way around.

This is what it looks like sewn on. Make sure to take out your basting stitches. It will look a lot better if you do.

Now the material will fall more even by taking out the extra stitches.

Moving on to the top portion of the bustle to add the waistband. Before sewing it on you need to baste the upper top to fit your waist size.